Ed Gein Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb 33 out of 36 people found the following review useful: There's normal, there's abnormal, and then there's Ed. from Raleigh, NC 17 August 2002 I caught this film on cable expecting a real waste of time (hey, I wasn't busy), but was very surprised to see that there was a lot more to this movie than it seems on the surface. Yes, 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre', 'Psycho', 'Silence of the Lambs', and numerous other films have been "loosely" based on the story of Ed. These are all far better horror movies and, with the exception of 'Psycho', depend very heavily on blood & guts. However, all three of those films were fictional accounts. There's something considerably more horrific about the fact that these events actually happened (although many names were changed to protect the innocent/dead/consumed). Yet another case of showing what happens when children are raised without a sense of love, compassion or happiness. Jeffery Dahmer's problems had very similar origins, as did several other serial killers (and, I'm sure, many who are still out there).

Instead of 'love and affection', Ed and his brother are given large doses of 'fire & brimstone'... Ed accepts this without question, although his brother does not (much to Ed's dismay), and the combination of the twisted religious concepts his mother imposed upon him (to her, there seemed to be no good in the Bible, only 'Revelations' and in particular the 'Whore of Babylon', which all other women seemed to be in her mind... upon which most of his killings are attributed to, granted through his schizophrenic delusions of his mother). Regardless of what made him what he turned out to be, the sensationalistic qualities of the true events are better left for those who wish to learn more. This film touches on much of the creepiness, but explains little motivation (aside from his religious 'logic')... I believe this is intentional, as the movie is really telling the life story of Ed Gein rather than describing his tabloid exploits. Oddly enough, I was not left with a feeling of disgust, repulsion or anger with Ed; Ed was a surprisingly sympathetic character that you feel more pathos for than anything else.

Steve Railsback again has done a wonderful job of portraying a historical sicko (after his wild-eyed performance as Charlie Manson in 'Helter Skelter'), and is utterly convincing. This is a psychological profile rather than a case history. They hint at several motivations in the film (his comment at the bar of "...any of y'all fellas ever considered changing your sex, like they do in Sweden?", his 'skin suit', his 'rituals' where he is attempting to resurrect his dead mother, etc), but ultimately it is simply the delusions of his mother that drive him to action... actions, which in most case, Ed really seems to object to; but being a loyal son, he obeys his mother. They do not focus on the truly bizarre elements, such as the skull bowls or the skin lampshades, because for the most part this film is told through the mind of Ed... and these things would have been nothing special to Ed, just another hobby like books on Nazi atrocities, cannibalism, shrunken heads, and taxidermy. To him, these artifacts were simple furnishings that he didn't think twice about.

I also question that the skull bowls were something that were used a lot; I believe that they were the equivalent of his 'fine china' that he brought out for special occasions (like have his next dinner over for dinner). My wife felt that Ed should not have been found insane because he knew what he was doing was wrong. I disagree with that. While he may have known that what he was doing could get him in trouble, were he to get caught, he clearly felt that he was doing what mother told him to do, which for him was the 'right' thing to do... never mind the fact that he accepts these instructions from a delusion (compare this to Russell Crowe's character in 'A Beautiful Mind'... he has delusions as well, but he ultimately acknowledges them as delusions and can ignore them... Ed is so focused on bringing his mother back, that he wouldn't ignore his delusion even if he knew she was not real - it might seem strange to compare the two films, but I happened to see them back to back). In the end, do we learn anything new? Not really. Do we learn anything about ourselves? Not really. Do we learn anything about human nature?

Only that we seem to be fascinated with these sort of aberrations. Serial killers and mass murderers have become the 'freak show' of modern times, and it's ok to stare at them... at least, that's the way it seems. The film 'bookends' with actual footage of his neighbors at the beginning of the film talking about what a quiet, normal guy Ed was, and ends with actual footage of the real Ed being hauled away by the police. To say that the aforementioned films were based on the life of Ed is like saying that a film about chopping down trees is based on the life of George Washington; they only take snippets of his tale.

"Texas Chainsaw Massacre" takes the 'leatherface' mask, bone sculptures and indirect cannibalism (since they are selling the meat, it is a different type of cannibalism), but Ed certainly had no commercial operation; "Psycho" takes the aspects of his isolation, taxidermic skills, and the delusions of his domineering dead mother; "Silence of the Lambs" takes the cannibalism (true cannibalism, which Ed was a 'fan' of), the sexual identity issues, and the idea of dressing up as a woman (as opposed to dressing up LIKE a woman)... but none of these are as horrible as what really happened. To tell the true story of Ed Gein, in full Technicolor blood & guts, would be far more than what most audiences could stomach... Not a bad film, not a great film. Great performance by Railsback. Best to see if you know a little bit about Ed to begin with, but not required... the actual atrocities are not as interesting as the man himself and how he came to be what he was. Was the above review useful to you?

23 out of 26 people found the following review useful: "I hope you're hungry cuz I been a cookin'." from Kentucky 15 February 2004 Ed Gein, appropriately titled, follows the life of murderer and cannibal Ed Gein. And what a lovely story it is. Ed and his dead mother have been the centerpiece for many movies. Of all the films based on Gein (Psycho, TCM, Silence of the Lambs), this may be the most reality based. However, it is also the dullest. I'm not saying it's a boring film. On the contrary it's very interesting. But when compared to those other films, it just seems lacking. There's not much gore and you don't really get to see him kill anyone. So why invest time with the film you ask. Because of Steve Railsback. Railsback performs wonderfully as the demented momma's boy. It's a joy to just sit back and watch him act. His last lines of the film are especially disturbing.

This is the best of the current serial killer film craze that I have seen thus far however I do prefer the 70's film Deranged as a much creepier representation of Ed Gein's life. Was the above review useful to you? 22 out of 28 people found the following review useful: ED GEIN: A Woman in a Man's Body from United States 6 August 2005 This movie gets a lot more criticism than it generally deserves. Indeed, it is extremely low-budget, but it basically nails the whole point of Ed Gein better than anyone ever has, or possibly ever will. What seems to disappoint most people is the fact that the film sticks so closely to the story of what happened. The reality is, Ed Gein was not a serial-killer in any respect, and murdered two women who he may have felt resembled his dead-mother. What he is most remembered for, in-reality, are the ghoulish-excavations and "articulations" of dead-bodies. It's very difficult for us to imagine in 2005 how much of a bombshell Ed Gein was in late-1950s America.

In-fact, it's my own humble opinion that we still haven't entirely coped with the knowledge of such aberrant-behavior. Why do people do such things? Sometimes, there are no clear-answers, but the makers of "Ed Gein" have shed some much-needed light on what is known about Gein's metamorphosis into a full-blown ghoul. Surprisingly, a great-deal of the psychological subtext of his life has leaked-into films "based" on his "true story." Most successful-of-all--naturally--is Hitchcock's "Psycho," but Steve Railsback and Chuck Parello have shown us a very clear scenario into why Ed Gein became the man we know-of today. Gein was basically bisexual and had a strong-desire to BE a woman, like his mother. As stated in "Psycho" so well, he wanted to "...become his mother," in a sad-attempt to "bring her back" to life. His father was a pathetic-drunk, and as is well-known, his mother had a god-like dominance (coupled with religious-fanaticism and sociopathic-attitudes)over the young boy.

Ed was also deeply-traumatized by an incident on the family farm where he saw his parents slaughtering a pig--Ed was unable to assist them, and was often called a "panty-waist" by his mother. The incident, and a few others, are enacted convincingly by Parello and company, and much of the film takes-place in Gein's head (where it belongs). There are a few continuity-errors: the headlights of a car are clearly from the 1990s in one insert-shot, and there are a few moments where the production-design could have been closer to what 1950s America looked-like. But, all-in-all, you have the definitive film on Ed Gein. It's all here, in all its pathetic-glory. This is what happens when someone is neglected by family and society spiritually and medically;this was simply a sick man who needed help. Nobody did until it was too-late. This isn't sexy and exciting to gore-hounds and thrill-seekers who come to a film like this not to learn something, but merely to stimulate their hunger for viscera. Excellent film! How can you lose with ole' Steve Railsback, anyway?

Postscript: It seems possible Mr. Railsback was a target-for-death of Mr. Robert Blake! Was the above review useful to you? 13 out of 13 people found the following review useful: Fairly Accurate of the Real Story 2 January 2004 *** This review may contain spoilers *** I put off seeing this for a while because I was lead to believe it would be made as a splatter and gore picture than a recreation of the real story. When I finally saw it, I was pleasantly surprised and impressed at the level of research that actually went into this. The recreations and re-enactments are filled with actual quotes ("Ed, why is it that every time someone vanishes you are around?") that it becomes almost how the way it must have happened. Steve Railsback, who once convinced us that he was Charlie Manson in "Helter Skelter," again convinces us that he is Ed Gein. His portrayal is very sympathetic and the score and flashbacks to certain key events in his life certainly augment the story as it moves along. Several of the characters in the movie, however, turn out to be representatives or amalgamations of characters of one or more characters.

Berneice Worden is renamed Collette Marshall and her son Frank Worden is now Brian Hillman. Mary Hogan, however, is Mary Hogan because no living relatives could be found for her in order to get permission to use her in the movie. Of course, you can't overlook the numerous references that would later inspire Hitchcock's "Psycho." The preserved room, the voice of mother, the split personality and the sheer shock value all made their way to the fictional story of Norman Bates. Ed Gein/In The Light Of The Moon is basically what a true horror film should be. A highly intelligent plot with suspense and intrigue where the antagonist can be sympathetic and not just a ruthless killing machine in a hockey mask that does nothing but conjure blood and vomit. Was the above review useful to you? 14 out of 16 people found the following review useful: Low budget hurts, but it's still good from United States 19 August 2002 True story of Ed Gein who, in the 1950s, killed women or dug up their corpses and...well, just guess! Gein was the inspiration for "Psycho". This is a factual account of what happened.

There is an earlier film (1972) called "Deranged" which basically told the same story. "Deranged" is a very good, very scary and extremely gruesome movie which played fast and loose with some of the facts. This one sticks to them. It's nowhere near as sick as the earlier film and isn't even that violent or bloody (except for a scene at the end), but it made me feel uneasy. Steve Railsback's excellent performance helps. You see the madness behind his mild-mannered exterior. Also there's a solid supporting cast and some good, spooky direction. The low budget does show (some of the sets look incredibly cheap) but the film does work. Not for the screamish or weak of stomach. Was the above review useful to you? 15 out of 19 people found the following review useful: Full (and Honest) review. 3 May 2001 Ed Gein - (Special pre-release preview) USA/2001/18. Dir. Chuck Parello. Hailed as the inspiration for many of Hollywood's greatest murderers, Ed Gein was a real-life serial killer operating in 1950's Wisconsin.

We were treated to a special pre-release preview of this forthcoming biopic. Many may have been left with a strange sense of déjà vu. 'Psycho', the novel upon which Hitchcock's classic horror is based was inspired by the activities of the reclusive farmer, with the author Robert Bloch living just fifty miles from the town of Plainfield where Gein lived. The domineering mother character is consequently a big part of both films, as she instructs her wayward son to kill from beyond the grave. The skin wearing antics of 'Buffalo Bill' in Jonathan Demme's `The Silence of the Lambs' (based on the Robert Harris novel) were also a part of the twisted Gein routine as his butchered and ate his way through his victims, spreading fear through small-town America. `The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and `American Psycho' also owe a debt to this true tale, which demonstrates the full extremes of human depravity. Such was the myth attached to this story that it is surprising that no one has tried to bring it to the big screen before.

The character of `Psycho's' Norman Bates is undoubtedly far better known than his real-life inspiration but director Chuck Parello takes a brave step and tackles the monster head on. Ed Gein's shy existence from abused child to grave robber and murderer are carefully charted, with his obsession for anatomy and his mother always in the background. Whether completely truthful or not, the film portrays Gein as more of a misguided bumpkin than a cold-blooded maniac. The opening shows apparently authentic news footage from the time, with neighbours expressing their shock that such a `nice, quiet young man like Ed' could be involved in such horrific crimes. This adds a touch of realism to the proceedings, but the remainder from childhood through killings to capture is standard fare, with few surprises en route. Was the above review useful to you? 16 out of 21 people found the following review useful: Deranged from Deming, New Mexico, USA 10 April 2003 Considered as a film about an unhappy and perverted man, the movie is so-so, perhaps a bit more. A boy and his brother grow up on a dismal farm. Their father is brutal, their mother religious and caring but stern too.

Always, when they show weakness, there is the shadow of the allegation of femininity hanging in the background. Older boy leaves home as soon as decorum allows. The father disappears from their lives and the mother, domineering and clinging, takes over Ed Gein's life. She dies painfully. Ed goes mad. Mother appears in hallucinations, telling Ed what to do, scolding him if he hesitates, prompting him to acts most of us might vomit at the mere thought of. But you know what? This is way, way ahead of the usual sorts of slasher movies, the kind that have turned into self parodies. Railsback was executive producer and cast himself in the principal role, and he's good too, although his mangled Southern mumble is a bit difficult to square with the actual Wisconsin setting of the events. Railsback underplays Gein's psychosis just enough. Gein isn't a loony loner, as he might have been. He's a slow-moving gloomy looking guy who dresses like a sloppy rube (you can almost smell his unwashed overalls) but he's reasonable in public, seems to have his wits about him.

He makes the right kinds of comments, more or less, at the times they are called for. Overhearing a conversation between a saleswoman and a customer who has heart disease, he wishes her well on her forthcoming operation, a nice gesture that anyone with claims to normality might make. Railsback makes him quiet, slightly awkward, and gives him a constant shy smile in front of others. It's a fine portrayal of schizophrenia, better than Russel Crowe's in "A Beautiful Mind." Gein is just about perfect, a shambling walk (almost on tip toe), a stare that lasts far too long, the unfunny joke he tells that makes him laugh out loud while others gawk, the half-baked religious ideas, a daily cycle that seems all non sequitur. He gets the necessary chores done, buys antifreeze and goes shopping. Not the way you and I might -- he lives on nothing but canned pork and beans (and some other things) -- but he gets the job done. He hangs out from time to time in a depressingly dark rural saloon, where he sits one or two stools away from the few other customers.

The others know him, and some, like the bartender, are kind and sympathetic to him, while some make jokes about him. That's his public face. Rather a dull lonely man, a sad man really who has never recovered from his mother's death, someone who needs looking after and will never get it. His home, however -- well, that's a different matter entirely. As a police officer once said about Son of Sam's residence, "the inside of his house looks like the inside of his head." It's a remote and non-productive place, falling apart on the outside, the lock missing from the front door, old tires and bedsprings in the yard. That's just the outside. The inside is even worse. Horrible, in fact. About the single most depressing dump I can remember seeing on screen in recent years. Little light seems to enter. And what the light shows us we'd rather not see. The man seems never to have thrown out any piece of junk he's come into possession of. Old newspapers stacked in corners. Dirty dishes. An unmade bed that any prison could improve upon. Gein was frankly nuts, no question about it.

But, as I understand it, he murdered only two people, both of them middle-aged ladies who treated him in a motherly fashion. Of course the house had body parts all over it but these were from dug-up corpses. The man ate out of bowls made from that part of the skull called the calvarium, and so did his few guests. But naturally he had few guests. He made a few dollars babysitting two boys at his place but when one of them wandered into his bedroom -- the bedroom with the shrunken heads on the walls and the rats on the floor -- he ushered the kids to the door and politely and firmly told them not to come back. "I guess a man needs his privacy," he tells them. The two murders are horrifying in a non-sensational way. Both women are shot without expecting it to happen. One doesn't die immediately and protests when her punctured body is dragged out to Gein's truck to be taken to his cellar and dressed like a hog. But, although the scenes are graphic and realistic, they are not at all sensationalized. No preliminary threats, no bondage or torture, no screaming, no maniacal whacking with axes or bashing in of heads with maces.

It's all the more frightening for its matter-of-fact tone. And there is one scene in which Gein, a raving lunatic, dances out of his front door into the moonlight, dressed in long johns and human skin, a merkin fixed to his groin, banging pots and pans and whooping with God only knows what rotten pot of exaltations. It's far more shocking than anything in "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer," although the two have the senselessness of random murders in common. You want to be scared? This true story, this production, ought to do the job. You'll be locking your doors at night. Was the above review useful to you? 10 out of 12 people found the following review useful: Flawed movie that should have been much stronger but it's a fine film. from Canada 2 July 2005 A man in his late forties, who lived in a small community of Plainfield, Wisconson. A local oddity by the name of Ed Gein (Steve Railsback), who is just a little different from others. Ed was tormented and abused years ago by his parents, especially his mother (The late:Carrie Snodgress).

Since Ed's repression brought out the worse of him, which lead to brutal murders and countless mutilations from his victims and corpses. Directed by Chuck Parello (Herny:Portrait of a Serial Killer 2, The Hillside Strangler) made a horrific, unflinching horror film. Which it is Based on a True Story of America's First Infamous Serial Killers. Railsback, who played a true Serial Killer before in Helter Skelter as Charlie Manson back in 1976. Which it was a 2 Part T.V. Movie. Railsback is well cast as Ed Gein. DVD has an sharp Pan & Scan (1.33:1) transfer and an fine-Dolby 2.0 Surround Sound. DVD only extra is a trailer, but this DVD could have used more features of this fascinating true-life tale. Oddly Enough, they did a better Ed Gein movie back more than three decides ago with the film titled "Deranged". Railsback is also one of the Executive Producers for this film. (*** ½/*****). Was the above review useful to you? 5 out of 5 people found the following review useful: Odd business, all of it...

31 October 2005 *** This review may contain spoilers *** First of all, I must say that I LOVED the Steve Railsback/Carrie Snodgress teaming, they acted so well together. I know it's an odd thing to admit, but I howled at the scene when Ed's Mother came back from the dead to him and his voice went all soft like an awed little boy's and he said, 'I'm so glad you come back to me', and she held him in her arms and told him she loved him! If only it had stayed like that,if she'd come back before he'd killed Mary Hogan, and they would have been happy in the confines of Ed's broken mind.(I KNOW he killed his big brother Henry prior to this, but the real Ed was not charged with Henry's murder so this is just conjuncture plus artistic licence)Only one slight complaint; According to my reading, Augusta Gein, the Mother, was a big woman, and the slender, slight Carrie Snodgress seemed too small and delicate to play her. I imagined someone like the excellent and underrated Tyne Daly in the role of the powerful, well built Mrs Gein.

But apart from this minor gripe, it's a well done all round and the 10 out of 10 I give it is well earned. Was the above review useful to you? 7 out of 9 people found the following review useful: The "Real" Leatherface Though some of you think The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was based on a true story, no it wasn't. Look it up before you start screaming, "But the new movie has police footage! and it says its real!" well its not, if you want the real story, watch this movie. Its not terribly good, but the story is pretty accurate to the real events that inspired films like "Psycho" "Don't Go In the House" "Silence of the Lambs" & "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" It has some decent but subtle gore, has the true story, and some cheesey special effects. If your into American history of serial killers and cannibals, this is for you, but if your not interested at all, I wouldn't rent it. Just look him up on the internet and you'll get all the info you need on Ed Gein.

Psycho: the best horror film of all time | Film | The Guardian Psycho: the best horror film of all time Alfred Hitchcock, 1960 Friday 22 October 2010 06.54 EDT First published on Friday 22 October 2010 06.54 EDT Share on Messenger Close Author Robert Bloch, on whose novel Joseph Stefano's screenplay was based, described Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho as embodying "the fear of the boy next door". The terror, for Bloch, lay in the fact that the killer "could be the person sitting next to you". Bloch had been inspired to write his potboiler (copies of which Hitchcock reportedly bought up to keep the end a surprise) by news reports about Ed Gein, the seemingly ordinary Wisconsin loner who was revealed to be a murderer and necrophile. Dubbed "the Wisconsin ghoul", Gein made ornaments and clothing from the skin of the dead and inspired a legacy of fictionalised screen shockers, ranging from the trashy Deranged to the epochal Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs.

But it was Anthony Perkins's maternally obsessed misfit in Psycho who most perfectly distilled the modern fear of the monster who looks just like you. "My name is Norman Bates," sang British synth combo Landscape in 1981, "I'm just a normal guy …" proving that Perkins's creation still had pop cachet two decades after his first appearance. Dispute still rages as to the provenance and power of Psycho's notorious shower sequence, which has become perhaps the most iconic murder scene in the history of cinema. Designer Saul Bass's preparatory storyboards so closely detail every moment of the sequence that some have suggested he should share directorial credit with Hitchcock. Others argue that it is Bernard Herrmann's stabbing score, with its screeching atonal strings, which packs the real punch. But it was the maestro's flair for carnivalesque showmanship that made Psycho headline news – from the unforgettably camp trailer in which Hitchcock led audiences around the "scene of the crime" before throwing back the shower curtain to reveal a screaming Vera Miles, to his much-publicised ruling that no one be allowed to enter the theatre once a performance of Psycho had begun.

"Any spurious attempts to enter by side doors, fire escapes or ventilating shafts will be met by force," announced a cardboard lobby cut-out of Hitchcock, pointing sternly at his watch. "The entire objective of this extraordinary policy, of course, is to help you enjoy Psycho more." Its edgy exploitation aesthetic and taboo-breaking "toilet flush" shot (even more controversial than the shower scene) have meant Psycho forged a template for the money-spinning slasher franchises that still thrive – or fester? – today. It directly inspired Halloween (which starred Janet Leigh's daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis) and Friday the 13th (in which the murderous mother-son relationship is sneakily reversed), and spawned a string of sequels including a TV movie that brought Bates's legacy into the direct-to-video age. Groaning artworks followed too, from Gus Van Sant's allegedly post-modern colour-copy remake, to Douglas Gordon's puzzlingly feted installation 24 Hour Psycho, which simply slowed the appropriated film to a snail's pace.

Hitchcock would never have been so pompous; he made Psycho fast and cheap (it cost a mere $807,000) to entertain a mainstream audience, using his regular TV crew and shooting in black-and-white to give the production a vérité news-footage feel. Many viewers still insist that the blood running down the plughole after Marion's murder is bright red, but it is the power of their imaginations that makes the brown chocolate syrup seem so. After half a century of terror, Psycho is still ensuring that no one feels safe in the shower. Ed Gein: Real American Psycho ED GEIN "I had a compulsion to do it." Born at the turn of the century into the small farming community of Plainfield, Wisconsin, Gein lived a repressive and solitary life on his family homestead with a weak, ineffectual brother and domineering mother who taught him from an early age that sex was a sinful thing. Eddie ran the family's 160-acre farm on the outskirts of Plainfield until his brother Henry died in 1944 and his mother in 1945.

When she died her son was a thirty-nine-year-old bachelor, still emotionally enslaved to the woman who had tyrannized his life. The rest of the house, however, soon degenerated into a madman's shambles. Thanks to federal subsidies, Gein no longer needed to farm his land, and he abandoned it to do odd jobs here and there for the Plainfield residents, to earn him a little extra cash. But he remained alone in the enormous farmhouse, haunted by the ghost of his overbearing mother, whose bedroom he kept locked and undisturbed, exactly as it had been when she was alive. He also sealed off the drawing room and five more upstairs rooms, living only in one downstairs room and the kitchen. "Weird old Eddie", as the local community know him, had begun to develop a deeply unhealthy interest in the intimate anatomy of the female body - and interest that was fed by medical encyclopedias, books on anatomy, pulp horror novels and pornographic magazines. He became particularly interested in the atrocities committed by the Nazis during the Second World War and the medical experiments performed on Jews in the concentration camps.

Soon he graduated on to the real thing by digging up decaying female corpses by night in far-flung Wisconsin cemeteries. These he would dissect and keep some parts heads, sex organs, livers, hearts and intestines. Then he would flay the skin from the body, draping it over a tailor's dummy or even wearing it himself to dance and cavort around the homestead - a practice that apparently gave him intense gratification. On other occasions, Gein took only the body parts that particularly interested him. He was especially fascinated by the excised female genitalia, which he would fondle and play with, sometimes stuffing them into a pair of women's panties, which he would then wear around the house. Not surprisingly, he quickly became a recluse in the community, discouraging any visitors from coming near his by now neglected and decaying farm. Gein's fascination with the female body eventually led him to seek out fresher samples.

His victims, usually women of his mother's age, included 54-year old Mary Hogan, who disappeared from the tavern she ran in December 1954, and Bernice Worden, a woman in her late fifties who ran the local hardware store, who disappeared on the 16th November 1957. Mrs. Worden's son Frank was also the sheriff's deputy, and upon learning that weird old Eddie Gein had been spotted in town on the day of his mother's disappearance, Frank Worden and the sheriff went to check out the old Gein place, already infamous amongst the local children as a haunted house. There, the gruesome evidence proved that Gein's bizarre obsessions had finally exploded into murder, and much, much worse. In the woodshed of the farm was the naked, headless body of Bernice Worden, hanging upside down from a meat hook and slit open down the front. Her head and intestines were discovered in a box, and her heart on a plate in the dining room. The skins from ten human heads were found preserved, and another skin taken from the upper torso of a woman was rolled up on the floor.

There was a belt fashioned from carved-off nipples, a chair upholstered in human skin, the crown of a skull used as a soup-bowl, lampshades covered in flesh pilled taut, a table propped up by a human shinbones, and a refrigerator full of human organs. The four posts on Gein's bed were topped with skulls and a human head hung on the wall alongside nine death-masks - the skinned faces of women - and decorative bracelets made out of human skin. The stunned searchers also uncovered a soup bowls fashioned from skulls, a shoebox full of female genitalia, faces stuffed with newspapers and mounted like hunting trophies on the walls, and a "mammary vest" flayed from the torso of a woman. Gein later confessed that he enjoyed dressing himself in this and other human-skin garments and pretending he was his own mother. The scattered remains of an estimated fifteen bodies were found at the farmhouse when Gein was eventually arrested, but he could not remember how many murders he had actually committed. The discovery of these Gothic horrors sent shock waves throughout Eisenhower-era America. In Wisconsin itself, Gein quickly entered local folklore.

Within weeks of his arrest, macabre Jokes called "Geiners" became a statewide craze. The country as a whole learned about Gein in December 1957, when both Life and Time magazines ran features on his "house of horrors." After ten years in a mental hospital, Gein was judged competent to stand trial. Although considered fit to stand trial, Eddie was found guilty, but criminally insane. He was first committed to the Central State Hospital at Waupon, and then in 1978 he was moved to the Mendota Mental Health Institute where he died in the geriatric ward in 1984, aged seventy-seven. It is said he was always a model prisoner - gentle, polite and discreet. He died of respiratory and heart failure in 1984. By then, however, Gein had already achieved pop immortality, thanks to horror writer Robert Bloch, who had the inspired idea of creating a fictional character based on Gein-a deranged mama's boy named Norman Bates. In 1960, Alfred Hitchcock transformed Bloch's pulp chiller, "Psycho", into a cinematic masterpiece.

Insofar as "Psycho" initiated the craze for "slasher" movies, Gein is revered by horror buffs as the the prototype of every knife-, axe-, and cleaver-wielding maniac who has stalked America's movie screens for the past thirty years. There are some obvious similarities between Hitchcock's reclusive Norman Bates and the apparently inoffensive but secretly deranged, mother-fixated Gein. Hitchcock's "Psycho" led on, of course, to a plethora of pale imitators: "Psycho 2", written by Tom Holland and directed by Richard Franklin, "Psycho III" (1986), written by Charles Edward Pogue and directed by Anthony Perkins, and Mick Garris's "Psycho IV: The Beginning" (1990), which was made for cable TV, and went straight to video in Europe. The Gein case also provided a basis for the 1967 monster movie "It", ostensibly based on the mythical Jewish folk demon, the Golem, in which mad curator Roddy McDowall carries on conversations with the rotten corpse of his mother, which he keeps at home in her bed. " The Texas Chain Saw Massacre ...

What happened is true! Now the movie that's just as real!", screamed the posters for Tobe Hooper's 1974 classic of independent cinema. Whilst not a literal rendition of the Gein case, the terrible house in Chain Saw, with its bizarre artifacts made out of human detritus - armchairs that bear human arms, lamps made out of human hands - resembles the Gein homestead in many of its particulars, and the crazy Leatherface, who hangs up his victims alive on meat hooks, also sports a grotesque mask fashioned from stitched together pieces of human skin. In Joseph Ellison's 1980 study of psychopathic child-abuse "Don't Go In The House", Donny (Dan Grimaldi) keeps the corpse of his religious fanatic mother in his apartment, and, as a consequence of her nasty habit of burning his arms when he misbehaved as a child, enjoys nothing better than bringing a young woman home and frying her up alive.

In William Lustig's "Maniac" (1980), the eponymous Oedipal killer indulges in garroting, deception, shooting and scalping, with the murderer's scalp collection adorning a row of tailor's mannequins. Gein's fondness for wearing human flesh resurfaced again in 1991 as one inspirations for the character Buffalo Bill in Jonathan Demme's "Silence of the Lambs", the homosexual psycho killer so named because he liked to "skin his humps". Gein was also the inspiration for the psycho-biopic "Deranged", a 1974 offering from American-International Pictures, co-written and co-directed by Alan Ormsby, and the lesser known but equally reverential "Three On A Meathook" (1973), directed by small-time auteur William Girdler and filmed in Louisville, Kentucky.

It also seems likely that Jorg Buttgereit, a self-confessed "Geinophile", was influenced by Eddie's predilections whilst making his paeans to necrophilia, " Nekromantik " (1988) and "Nekromantik 2" (1991). This bio is a combination of articles that appear in following reference sources 13 Famous Scary Movies Based on True Stories « 103.3 AMP RADIO 13 Famous Scary Movies Based on True Stories Matt Dolloff / 103.3 AMP Radio October 25, 2012 11:44 AM Filed Under: AMP Halloween , halloween , Horror Movies , Matt Dolloff , movies Not all scares come from the minds of Hollywood writers and directors. Some of the greatest horror flicks of all time are at least partially inspired by real-life stories, events, and people. Here’s thirteen of the best movies, and the chilling tales that inspired them. (Warning: video clips are NSFW – they’re from horror movies, what do you expect?) 1.

Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock’s classic is one of many famous horror movies based loosely on Ed Gein, a Wisconsin man who murdered two women and dug up graves of many others in the 1950s. Part of his dark obsessions was emulating his mother, which the character of Norman Bates also tried to do. Gein also inspired many other slashers and killers you see in the movies, but Psycho is one of the earliest known examples. The shower scene, though? That’s just pure Hitchcockian terror. 2. The Exorcist (1973) While the supernatural elements of ‘The Exorcist’ are no doubt exaggerated to some degree, the book that inspired the movie drew its own inspiration from a string of events in the 1940s and 1950s concerning the actual exorcism of a 13-year-old boy in Maryland. No confirmation as to whether the boy actually spoke like the devil, spider-walked down the stairs or projectile-launched split-pea soup into the face of a priest. But hey, exorcisms have happened before! 3.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) Although the psychotic chainsaw-wielding “Leatherface” and his deranged family never really existed, the concept of a man wearing the skin of his victims was inspired directly by the aforementioned Ed Gein, who made masks and dresses out of human skin and plenty of household items out of bones and teeth. The 2003 remake of the movie strayed a bit from the Gein inspirations, but it still featured creepy things made from humans. Gein wasn’t much of a murderer anyway, he was more of a grave-robber – doesn’t make him any less terrifying! 4. Jaws (1975) The story of the movie obviously made its heroes more, well, heroic. But the shark attacks that plagued a New Jersey coastline for a terrifying two-week period in 1916 provided the back-story of the novel and movie version of Jaws. With sharks popping up a lot more than usual in the summer of 2012 in Cape Cod, perhaps there’s basis for a remake? 5.

The Hills Have Eyes (1977) The basis for the Wes Craven classic, in which a family of bloodthirsty mutant cannibals terrorizes a lost family in the desert, is inspired directly by the legend of Sawney Bean, who led a 48-person clan in the hills of Scotland who allegedly murdered and ate over 1,000 people in the 15th century. The story’s variance has transformed it into a myth, with historians questioning its veracity – but all documentation points to a basis of at least some truth to the story. 6. The Amityville Horror (1979) The decades that have passed since the original story of The Amityville Horror has led to increased scrutiny by historians and even believed to be a hoax. But the Lutz family swears to this day they were terrified by the ghosts of dead bodies and plenty of demonic imagery that eventually drove them out after just a month living there. They could certainly just be crazy, but that’s what we all believe – and THAT’S when the ghosts show up! 7.

The Entity (1981) The lack of damning evidence makes the story that much more frightening: in 1974, a woman claiming to be repeatedly attacked and even raped by a demon possessing her body drew paranormal investigators to her house. The two men witnessed other paranormal activity like lights and objects moving around when they visited her house, and their story provided the basis for what became ‘The Entity.’ 8. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) This movie is inspired directly by real-life serial killer Henry lee Lucas, who confessed to over 600 murders between 1960 and 1983. Though most of them have been questioned or disproved, they provided the basis for much of the movie, which portrays Lucas as the most prolific killer of all time. Even if only about 213 of Lucas’ murders are proven, that’s still a terrifyingly high body count. And when you think about it, the fact that a human would be capable of so many murders actually makes the idea of slasher movies less absurd. 9.

The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) The movie is based on a book detailing creepy voodoo practices in Haiti, where one man claims he had been drugged with a special white powder that simulated death to him, only to be resurrected and used for field work as a zombie. The movie is based on a book by scientist Wade Davis chronicling his real-life studies of zombie-like discoveries in Haiti. The movie obviously exaggerates all these details from the book, but the fact that zombies have kind of existed in real life before makes the story more chilling. 10. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Hannibal Lecter is such an iconic character in horror, it’s hard to believe he was even inspired by anyone else. But bits and pieces from the backstory of notable killers and cannibals like Albert Fish likely helped author Thomas Harris craft the character, who Anthony Hopkins most famously portrayed in The Silence of the Lambs. It’s safe to say that Lecter is by leaps and bounds the most famous fictional cannibal character who ever existed. 11.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) Emily Rose is partially inspired by the story of Anneliese Michel, a 16-year-old German girl who suffered from demonic possession for what is thought to be over a decade. The 10-month-long exorcism process by two priests in 1975 ultimately led to Michel’s death, and manslaughter charges for the priests and her parents. The whole thing has a “swept-under-the-rug” feel to it, so it’s fair to theorize that the movie is based on true events. Exorcisms have definitely happened before, but just how the possessed people act remains mostly a mystery. Does that make it even more terrifying? 12. Wolf Creek (2005) Originally written as fiction, the script for ‘Wolf Creek’ was eventually changed with inspiration from real-life killers in Australia who abducted, tortured and killed tourists and hitchhikers between the ’90s and 2000s. What makes the story of Wolf Creek particularly frightening is that the victims’ deaths come at the hands of basically a regular dude, who just happens to be a murderous psychopath. Makes you want to avoid all strangers when on a trip.

13. Open Water (2007) ‘Open Water’ addresses a core human fear, being alone with a deadly creature in an area with little protection. In this case, it’s sharks and the endless pool of the ocean. The movie is based on an Australian couple that disappeared after being left behind by a scuba diving crew in the middle of the ocean. What’s scarier to you, being trapped in a confined space or an endlessly open space? With sharks circling around your feet, you might prefer a jail cell. Which true story terrifies you the most? Tell us in the comments.

Question: In the film Psycho what is the name of the deranged murderer?
Answer: Norman Bates